'Pill mill' physician who had 10 patients die of overdoses and had sex with others is sentenced to 2 years

Wednesday

Jan 4, 2017 at 6:00 PM

Larry Hannan

A Clay County doctor who had 10 patients die of drug overdoses will be going to federal prison for two years.

Russell Sachs, a former pain-management physician, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Brian Davis. The judge rejected advisory sentencing guidelines that recommended Sachs only get six months in prison.

Davis said the 10 deaths and Sachs having sexual relations with eight of his female patients justified a longer sentence. The judge also said Sachs was running a "pill mill" and prescribing drugs when there was no medical reason for it.

"I hope you will reflect on the horrible error of your ways," Davis said after imposing the sentence.

Sachs pleaded guilty to one count of prescribing controlled substances to patients for no legitimate medical purpose in June 2016. As part of the plea agreement three other charges were dropped.

All four charges against him involved prescribing medication that wasn’t medically necessary. Sachs has been out on $100,000 bond since a few days after his arrest and must report to prison by March 8.

He faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Davis did not fine Sachs but did order him to make $12,500 in restitution to a female patient.

That patient spoke Wednesday and said Sachs had destroyed her life.

"He did one of the worst things a doctor could do," the patient said. "He prescribed medication to me I didn’t need."

Sachs also took advantage of her sexually and caused her to lose her self-esteem, her hope and her job.

"I hope he had remorse for what he put me and others through," the patient said.

Sachs once owned and operated Physician Pain Management on U.S. 17 in Green Cove Springs. He was accused at various times in 2011 and 2012 of illegally dispensing and distributing alprazolam (Xanax), carisoprodol (Soma), clonazepam, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), methadone, morphine and oxycodone.

At an arraignment in 2015 prosecutors said Sachs often saw 70 patients a day, with most paying for their medical appointments and drugs with cash.

Under the plea deal Sachs acknowledged distributing clonazepam for reasons that were not legitimate medical purposes. He also agreed to cooperate with authorities in the investigation and prosecution of others.

Sachs has already given up his medical license and agreed to never practice medicine again.

Davis said Sachs violated the Hippocratic Oath of doing no harm, and said he was especially bothered that Sachs seemed to care only about money and was willing to take advantage of his patients sexually.

That violation of trust justified giving Sachs a longer sentence than was recommended, Davis said.

A Times-Union story about pain clinics in 2010 included an interview with the family of a woman who died under Sachs’ care. The story said the woman’s death in 2009 was the fourth accidental overdose death that year involving Jacksonville patients seeing Sachs, according to records from the Medical Examiner’s Office. Sachs in the story denied any wrongdoing.

Larry Hannan: (904) 359-4470

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